APPENDIX:
Ancient usages and customs of the borough of Maldon

The earliest surviving draft of the list of local customs was written
into the oldest Court Book in March 1444, but apparently copied from a
much older source possibly pre-dating the earliest known ordinance
registered in the court records (1389); this source was probably the
"book of customs" to which there are a few references  taken jointly
these references seem to imply that the book was compiled around 1380/81.
The town's acquisition of jurisdictions from its lords would have been
a sufficient motivation to compile a written set of customary usages
of the town. A more expansive list was drawn up and approved by the
General Court held on 8 January 1468, with the earlier version
incorporated as capitula 1-13 and many of the other ordinances
made since the 1380s gathered from court records and added; a few later
ordinances were entered at the end of the list (cap.47 onwards). The
next edition was compiled in 1555.

Below is a summary and paraphrase (not a verbatim transcription) of
the 1468 edition of the custumal with the later additions; clarifying
insertions of my own are in square parentheses [ ] and I add notes
concerning sources or later changes. For chapter titles I have used
both the 1468 and the 1555 recensions. The chapter numbering is my
own, and the loss of a parts of some of the pages (between chapters
14 and 15, and 24 and 25) may indicate that some customs are missing,
although it is not clear from the 1555 recension what these might
have been  possibly the 9th chapter of that recension is one of
the missing items. This, based on a local ordinance of 1389, states
that all types of pleas may be brought before the borough court
each Monday.

The heir to a man's lands
is to be the youngest son of his first wife. If the man only has
daughters, the lands are to be divided between them, but the youngest
may have first pick. If the children are underage, their mother
(or stepmother, if applicable) shall be their guardian; if she fails
to maintain the property, she shall lose guardianship to the nearest
friends of the deceased. The widow has dower right in her late
husband's property, even if she remarries  although the children
are not to lose their inheritance as a result of her remarriage.

Notes: the points about guardianship
and dower were omitted from the 1555 recension.

A man may devise any
properties that he has purchased during his lifetime, so long as the
devise is confirmed in court before the bailiffs at the next or the
second court [after his decease?], failing which
the properties shall go to the heir
[see cap.1].

Notes: the 1555 recension seems to imply
the devise had to be brought before the court during the lifetime of the
townsman, whereas the earlier version above suggests a form of local
probate of wills (or at least those portions relating to property within
the town). This custom did not apply to property which the townsman had
inherited.

Every
freeman shall have the right to make
3 essoins before having to appear
to answer a charge in court. Upon pain of fine (3d for freemen, 6d for
foreigners), no man shall answer
without finding attachments.

Notes: it is not clear here whether
"foreigners" is being used to refer to those from outside the town,
or to residents who were not freemen.

If any baker or brewer is
convicted of using false weights or measures, he shall be fined for
the first two offences; for the third, he shall go to the pillory. All
measures are be sealed [i.e. be marked with a stamp
indicating borough approval].

If any merchandise comes to
the town by land or water, every
freeman may demand a share. Ships
must remain in port for 3 tides to allow freemen the time to buy before
foreigners; after the elapse of
that period, the merchant may sell to whom he pleases. However, if a
freeman who takes a share fails to pay for it, or the seller may recover
his losses by the bailiffs and council imposing a tax on the whole
town.

Notes: in the 1555 recension, this was
elaborated and divided into two chapters, to distinguish between victuals
and other merchandise; the above conditions were retained in the case of
victuals, but for other merchandise cash-on-the-spot conditions
applied.

Notes: the 1555 recension adds that
peddlars should not sell unwholesome or stinking fish; any such meat
or fish would be confiscated. In 1402 the inmates of St. Giles' hospital,
founded to support burgesses who had developed leprosy, asserted a
raditional claim on any sub-standard meat, fish, bread or ale confiscated
by the authorities.

No
alien that marries the widow of
a freeman is to be received into the
franchise on those grounds. However,
the widow may retain the rights of a freeman while she remains single.
A freeman's daughter may make her husband free, by fact of the marriage.
No man is to be received into the franchise unless he takes oath before
the bailiffs and 4 or 6 wardemen to be true to the franchises of the
town and obedient to its officers.

Notes: an expanded version of this was
included in the 1555 recension; it included specifications about the
admission fee, and the provision that all children born to a man after
he had become a freeman had the right to the franchise at a minimal fee
(this was clearly the case with sons in the fourteenth century and was
probably so taken for granted that not felt worth mentioning in the
earliest custumal).

All
freemen are to assemble in the
common hall on Friday after Epiphany [6 January] to
hear the bailiffs' accounts [i.e. of annual revenues and
expenditures]. On that day the wardemen shall choose the new
bailiffs and other officers, from the more worthy men. If it is
necessary to fill gaps in the ranks of the wardemen, then new members
are to be chosen from the most able and most discrete townsmen. If any
of the wardemen is found to act contrary to the interests of the
community, he shall be removed and
a replacement chosen by assent of the community. Once a man has been
elected bailiff, he shall never afterwards be elected to any other office,
except representative to parliament.

Notes: the 1555 recension edited this
so that only the matter of freemen attending elections was included;
a separate chapter was devoted to the question of the
cursus officiorum

No man is to sell by any
measure that is not sealed with the town's seal, upon pain of fine (or,
if the culprit refuse to pay a fine, loss of
franchise).

Notes: omitted from the 1555 recension;
it seems that the need was felt for a more explicit or more general
statement of this custom than is found in cap.6, and such a statement
originated as an ordinance passed in April 1421.

Every resident who has borne
the estate of bailiff is to be ready to come to the moothall at all times,
upon command of the bailiffs, to discuss matters related to the common
benefit. Any refusing without reasonable excuse shall be fined.

Notes: a similar requirement appears in
the 1555 recension but restricted only to members of the town council.
In May 1408 we find a number of wardemen fined for failing to respond to
a summons to discuss town business.

No
freeman is to sue another freeman
outside the borough, without first having pursued his case as far as it
can be taken in the borough court, and then must obtain ballival licence
to transfer the case elsewhere.

Notes: that this was a serious problem
is suggested by the fact that the 1555 recension expands this chapter
by noting that failure to comply would result in 40 days imprisonment, a
great fine, and loss of the franchise.

No butcher is to sell in the
market on Sunday after matins is rung on the bell of All Saints church,
on pain of a fine and confiscation of the meat (which will be equally
divided between the town and the supervisors of the market). Shops may
open their doors, but not their windows, on Sundays [up until
the matins bell].

Notes: the 1555 recension included other
trades in this prohibition, although this may have been understood in
earlier times.

"Brothelled brawlers" who
refuse to submit to the bailiffs' judgement for their crimes  viz. a
fine of 6d. for a man and 4d. for a woman  shall bear the mortar,
according to old custom of the town, as appears in [records
dated] 4 Richard II (1380/81).

Notes: I am not certain what the mortar
was, but it was a punishment of humiliation also applied to scolds and
whores and was something carried or perhaps worn; omitted from the 1555
recension.

No
foreigner may buy or sell within
the town unless he has bought a licence to do so (40s.) from the
bailiffs.

Notes: the 1555 recension has something
similar, but the licensing requirement is more specifically directed at
foreigners buying merchandise or victuals at the port with the intent of
re-selling it in town (presumably in the market).

Any resident who places dung
or wastes on the common roads shall be fined 40d.

Notes: omitted from the 1555 recension,
although it contains chapters prohibiting women, servants or children from
casting dust or domestic refuse into the High Street, or from throwing
refuse within forty feet of the highway when dumping on the dunghills at
the Hythe or at town's end.

Each bailiff shall give an
accounting for [borough finances during] his term each
year. All debts due from the account are to be paid, from the
accountant's own money if necessary. The accountants may not withdraw
from the court until all debts and arrears are fully paid.

Notes: this originated in ordinances
of 1423 and 1426; outgoing bailiffs had to present the borough accounts
at the January General Court following election of their replacements. The
1555 recension continues this principle, although by that time it was the
chamberlains who were the accounting officers. This custom reveals one
of the disincentives to office-holding, in
personal liability for the successful
collection of anticipated revenues, although the intent was really to
ensure the bailiffs took their responsibilities seriously  they were
absolved from paying from their own pocket revenues that genuinely could
not be levied.

Any pig found wandering loose
in the town may be sold publicly for the profit of the town. If anyone
finds an alien pig in his pasture,
or on any pasture belonging to the town, and sets his dogs on it or
attacks it with a stick, so that the pig dies, the attacker cannot be
prosecuted [by the pig's owner].

Notes: this further chapter dealing with
loose pigs suggests they were a persistent nuisance at this period,
which perhaps explains the strength of the descriptor "alien" applied to
them; omitted from the 1555 recension.

The town has two markets, on
Wednesdays and Saturdays, and many other
liberties. No-one is allowed to
set up a market within a great distance of the town, nor to anything
else against the liberties, upon pain of £10 fine.

Notes: this is said to stem from a writ
obtained from the king, perhaps (given the tenor of the next chapter) one
related to the dispute over a rival market in Heybridge in 1338; omitted
from the 1555 recension.

It has been the custom since
time beyond memory that no vessel sail to Heybridge to load or unload
without paying a fee.

Notes: in fact, it had been a matter of
long dispute, but one gradually resolving in the town's favour; an
ordinance to similar effect was passed in June 1423, and another
ordinance on the same theme in July 1448.

A common custom is that the
counsel of the borough in all things is to be concealed and the
judgements made by bailiffs shall be observed. No-one fined by
bailiffs and council for any transgression in a public matter may
complain [i.e. appeal] to a lord or
foreign gentleman, under
pain of 20s. fine or loss of franchise.

Notes: an ordinance to this effect is
referred to during the case of Giles Morvyle
who had lied about his birthplace when becoming a freeman and, when later
accused of being an alien and
failing to prove otherwise, had tried to get help from some external
lord to counteract his condemnation by the bailiffs (1458).

Notes: the text of this chapter, omitted
from the 1555 recension, is simply a cross-reference to information about
rental of bridges and causeways in the "the new edition of the great book
of ancient customs" (itself not extant) It is not clear what the tenor of
this information would have been, but it was probably connected with
farming out collection of tolls on
merchandise travelling via the town bridge and the causeway leading
through the marsh to it (see cap.39).

No Dutchman or other
alien may bear a weapon, on pain
of its confiscation.

Notes: based on an ordinance of April
1463 which adds the exception of a knife with which to cut meat; the
1555 recension adds the further proviso that an alien could carry a weapon
when leaving town on a journey, or when returning. "Dutchman" was a
catch-all term for people from the Low Countries and Germany, likely the
leading sources of alien residents in Maldon.

Every bailiff shall have
16s.8d for his livery, to be worn on Corpus Christi day in procession,
on condition he buy a gown of the same colour, failing which they
shall have the old allowance of 13s.4d.